There’s something in the water… But it’s not Mife
Pregnant people should have access to abortion care throughout the entirety of their pregnancy and should have the agency to choose which method is best for them.
Mifepristone, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved abortion pill, is a safe, effective, life-saving medication that has been used in combination with misoprostol to end pregnancies for decades. Since medication abortion was approved by the FDA in 2000, approximately 5.9 million people have used mifepristone, and medication abortion accounted for 63% of all abortions in the United States in 2023.
The anti-abortion movement is upset that individuals’ use of mifepristone undercuts their attempts to ban abortion access outright. They are attempting to pursue any “believable” avenue to attack mifepristone, including weaponizing aspects of environmental law to spread misinformation and disinformation about mifepristone.
Despite mifepristone being a well-studied medication that millions of people use over its 25-year history, anti-abortion extremists are perpetuating widespread misinformation and disinformation about the usage of mifepristone.
Various anti-abortion groups claim without any evidence that medication abortion is contaminating drinking water and endangering our environmental health. These anti-abortion groups claim that those who use mifepristone to end their pregnancy flush remains of the medication in their homes, eventually making their way into various bodies of water, posing a threat to endangered species and livestock. Anti-abortion group Students for Life (SFL) stated their reasoning for using environmental law for their anti-abortion cause: “This is not because the environment was my first weapon of choice—it’s because it’s the one we have now…Environmental law has teeth. It already exists. And, frankly, I’m for using the devil’s own tools against them.”
Mifepristone does not contaminate drinking water.
Claims suggesting otherwise are misinformation tactics used by anti-abortion extremists to advance their political agenda to ban abortion medication. Although some politicians have pushed to regulate mifepristone under the guise of “environmental risks,” environmental scientists consistently refute this myth, emphasizing that remnants of mifepristone are highly unlikely to enter water systems.
Unfortunately, this mis- and disinformation is making its way into state and federal law and policy, creating even more avenues to criminalize people seeking and providing abortion care. For example, House and Senate Republicans introduced the “Respectful Treatment of Unborn Remains Act of 2025”, overly targeting abortion providers who are already following medical best practices for medical disposal. Laws like this one would not only subject providers to penalties. Since most medication abortions take place at patients’ homes, these laws attempting to track public water systems would subject people seeking abortion care, specifically medication abortion, to increased surveillance and criminalization.
Several similar attempts are taking place at the state level. For instance, Maine legislators introduced HP 573/LD 887, a bill that sought to impose manufacturer liability for drug disposal and require in-person supervision for patients taking the medication. Similar legislation has been introduced in Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming, demonstrating how environmental rhetoric is being weaponized to restrict access to reproductive health care and criminalize providers and patients.
Students for Life previously filed petitions to the FDA regarding their concern over mifepristone contaminating water, which they dismissed. However, now the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a stauncher anti-abortion leader in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm. RKF Jr., a former environmental lawyer and spreader of misinformation, has previously falsely claimed water contamination from chemicals impacting children’s sexuality.
Additionally, because has signaled he is open to federal abortion restrictions despite past support for abortion rights, anti-abortion extremists are more eager than ever to lawsuits and pressure campaigns to target RFK Jr’s environmental record. Unfortunately, their efforts have led RFK Jr. to announce he ordered the FDA to review the existing regulations on mifepristone and consider imposing additional restrictions.
The culmination of messaging, campaigns, and lobbying by anti-extremists is a plan in place to cite their “findings” to file lawsuits against abortion providers, drugmakers, and the FDA. This strategy underscores how misinformation is used to legitimize legal attacks on abortion care seekers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies to advance a broader political agenda of restricting reproductive rights and criminalizing people for seeking abortion care.
The spread of this misinformation and disinformation about medication abortion is a fear-mongering tactic that fuels false claims that will be used to track and punish patients who use mifepristone. These misleading assertions give a green light to lawmakers to intervene and control pregnancies under the guise of environmental protection, lawmakers who have never once showed interest or even believed the science behind the very real environmental crises we are facing or have faced past and present.
There is no reason to believe they will stop at abortion care, as these same false arguments can be used to criminalize other forms of health care such as contraception and gender-affirming care.
Policymakers and the public must challenge these baseless arguments, demand evidence-based policymaking, and actively debunk misinformation that endangers patients’ health and autonomy. Everyone deserves access to the abortion care that best fits their needs without fear of surveillance and punishment.